Pete Dowson

Sorry, you need to explain this further. Try FSInterrogate, set it to read 64k and it will read them all day. It isn't a good idea, of course, but it produces no errors. There is a limit of around 30k or so per single "Process" call. An FSUIPC_Read or FSUIPC_Write should return an error if you try more than that, but I cannot swear that all the language examples impose this. . It is nothing to do with that. There's an imposed limit on the amount of data processed by a single FSUIPC_Process call, that's all. It resets the pointers which FSUIPC_Process would also, once the transfer is complete. Yes, use FSUIPC_Process calls more often, at least once per 16k. Yes, it is called FSUIPC_Process -- you can see the code yourself and work out what is going on. FSInterrogate is the program to play with to see what is happening. Also my own TrafficLook transfers 16k at a time with no problems. Regards, Pete

It's working fine here. For example here are the log entries I got. ********* EPICINFO Module, Version 4.22 (9DEC03) by Pete Dowson Panel=AIRCRAFT\b737_400\panel\panel.cfg Epic Ref= Default CFG: Reading N:\FS9\EPICINFO.CFG ************************************************ CFG: Processing section [All] CFG: Log=1 CFG: Sets=CP ************************************************ 985 QP103 = Initialisation Done 1000 QP097 sent, orig val=32767 [0x40DFFFC000000000] PARKING_BRAKE_POS ... 12235 QP096 sent, orig val=0 [0x0000000000000000] PARKING_BRAKE_POS ... 13875 QP097 sent, orig val=32767 [0x40DFFFC000000000] PARKING_BRAKE_POS This is with FSUIPC 3.135 also installed, but i don't see how that makes any difference. the "PARKING_BRAKE_POS" token is working the same in FS2004 as it did in FS2002 and before, and that is all EpicInfo is using. That can be checked with FSLook. Also the same value is at offset 0BC8 in FSUIPC -- you can monitor that (as a U16 type value) in FSUIPC's monitoring facilities. I tested all this with default aircraft only. I'm sorry, I don't know what else I can do. Certainly none of that part of EPICINFO is any different to the way it has ever been, and it seems FS2004 is the same in that area too. Maybe you just aren't selecting these (set CP, or explicit selection)? Regards, Pete

There is nothing changed in FSUIPC which affects any of those things, unless (a) the Dream Fleet 737 does use FSUIPC for them (though I don't see why it would), and (b) you did not register your copy of FSUIPC and Dream Fleet provided no access key for FSUIPC. You see, since version 3.00, FSUIPC is only free for FreeWare access. If you register it and enter your Key then all the facilities are available to you and also, as a bonus, all programs will work with it without needing an access key. Many commercial add-ons are licensed for FSUIPC and do have an access key. You say "I never expected this because on your site dreamfleet 737-400 isnt standing in the list of software using FSUIPC.", but I do not list software using FSUIPC -- I have no way of knowing, as use of the SDK is free. This forum is my only "site", and I don't even try to list any programs. Possibly you are referring to the Enrico Schiratti page containing my software? I know he allows free listing of FSUIPC clients on that page, but I think they are by request of the publishers. You could easily test whether the DF737 needs FSUIPC by removing FSUIPC altogether and seeing if it all still works correctly. Also, if it is trying to use FSUIPC and you have version 3.135 installed, there should be some entry in the FSUIPC Log, and possibly a message box occurring telling you it isn't accredited, if indeed it is not. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC doesn't touch any of the axes unless asked to, so if it is okay with FSUIPC removed it sounds like something is actually using FSUIPC to do this. Is it the same with all aircraft? Is the Rudder section in FSUIPC options definitely showing "Set" in the leftmost button and not "Reset"? Switch on FSUIPC's IPC write logging, and also Monitor locations 0BBA, 0BBC and 332C (all as type "S16" in decimal) to the Log as well. Just run long enough to get the problem, then close FS, ZIP up the FSUIPC.LOG and FSUIPC.INI files, also the FS9.CFG file, and send them to petedowson@btconnect.com. I'll see if I can figure out what is going on. Regards, Pete

No. Two reasons -- no one ever asked and I don't see a reason for this as most folks are interested more in real weather, but much more importantly I have absolutely no idea how to do such a thing. What sort of use would you see of such a facility? No, unfortunatel not :? .... but I've saving my pennies and hope to get one this year! :D. Santa did bring me a Hoverfly helo though (http://www.snelflight.co.uk) which I've been crashing quite regularly these last few days whilst away from base. :D :shock: :D :shock: Happy New Year! Regards, Pete

No. Did you use the Logging facilities to find out what is going on? Is this with FS98, FS2000, FS2002 or FS2004, or all of them? I'll check here when I catch up with things (I was away for a few days). If it isn't listed, no. However, you can read/write anything in FSUIPC using the direct access FSUIPC facilities, if you need this. A happy new year to you too! Regards, Pete

It looks like you are getting occasional garbage on this connection -- this could be a LAN driver problem, but it could equally be a bad cable, bad connection or faulty network card. However, I doubt whether these odd few errors would give you any consistent lag in specific values being updated. Quite honestly I don't even know whether the V-speeds are updated through WideFS and FSUIPC or directly via the NetDir files mechanism PM uses. You really need to chat to the PM folks. Try the Newsgroup. Regards, Pete

Thank you very much! Happy New Year! Pete Dowson

Doesn't Windows provide calibration for this device? I don't know the SideWinder range, but I would have thought it either provides a driver with calibration via Windows Game Contorllers, or relies upon a standard driver which will allow such calibration. Also check the FS sensititivity and null zone in Options-Controls-Assignments. For throttles you'd normally want sensitivity up high and null zone low or zero. If you want the end points set even more accurately and have a registered copy of FSUIPC you can go further in FSUIPC, as documented in its User Guide. Pete

Yes, Just assign a key or button to one of the extra FSUIPC controls "Traffic Density Toggle" or Traffic Density Set". These are described in the FSUIPC User Guide. Just be warned that whilst reducing traffic density is almost instantaneous, increasing it makes FS re-process the traffic files, so you get a few seconds of progress bar. Pete

Okay, but please forgive any delay in my reponse. I *might* be able to get to it on the weekend, but more likely next Monday or so. No idea what that could be at all off-hand, sorry. Perhaps more details? Later though. Regards, Pete

This is your interpretation, though how you arrive at it I do not understand. It was not intended to be read in the way you say, and I cannot see how it could be interpreted that way. The main thing I pointed out was that you were posting in the wrong place. Everything else was factual, not emotional nor condescending. You really were never told that. Please read it again. ... in the private message area, no, That is quite right. I am not going to trade insults in private. If you write to me there, or my private email address, apparently just to be nasty and personal, as you did, I will just delete the messages, and block them if I can. Not here though, you can make any amount of fuss here you like. Everyone can see it and judge it themselves, and I am not going to act as censor. But I am too easily upset by irrational attacks, and don't wish to read them. Thank you. Pete

OkayI am hoping some other SB users will jump in here to help. The interface SB uses to update the MP aircraft is the FS MP interface, which is outside my experience and also outside of any of my software. I do know that the FS2004 MP protocol is different from the FS2002 MP protocol, but I think your SBRelay program is supposed to take care of that. That proves that (a) your link to the centre is working, and (b) the interface between SB and FSUIPC is okay. This is the information which FSUIPC supplies to SB, and apart from weather, if you use the SB weather, is, I think, the only use made of FSUIPC. It's actually "Dowson", but please call me Pete. It seems that the problem lies somewhere between SB and SBRelay or SBRelay and FS's MP interface. I'm very sorry, but I know nothing about this stuff, but there are visitors here who should be able to help. Unfortunately, it may be a bad time as they may be away this week. It may help also to post this very same message in the FS2004 forum, near here. I have noticed quite a number of SB-type queries being posted and discussed there recently. So they are saying it is FS's multiplayer module going wrong? I wonder if they can provide some way of you getting diagnostics of this so it can be reported/analysed. I think there are many happy users of this stuff on FS2004, so it sounds as if it is specific to something on your system. The usual answer (e.g. from MS support) is to re-install FS and see if that fixes it. However, if you have a lot installed that is a bit annoying. One thing I do is always have a "virgin" installation of FS as well as the one I used with all the add-ons I like. That way I can quickly try things out on the "virgin" setup to see if it's another add-on or possibly some file corruption which is causing the problems. To do that you will need enough disk space. Then rename your FS9 folder temporarily, install a complete new installation. When that's up and running, add the minimum necessary to get your on-line flight running and tested. If that works, then a process of elimination follows -- you need to find what the difference is that matters, whether it be a corrupted FS file, some CFG or other parameters, or an add-on. If it still doesn't work, then remove/remane the FS9.CFG file (which both installations would have used) and try again. If it still doesn't work, I'm afraid you might be looking at some sort of Windows driver or hardware problem. You can swap between the two installations by just loading from the appropriate folder, but to get back to "normal", rename the new (almost-virgin) installation to, say "FS9test" and change the renamed original to its normal name. The symptoms you describe are almost always associated with pitot heat not being on, but this omission will generally only cause a problem when flying through or near clouds which have icing capabilities. This is a weather function. Maybe SB is setting some of your weather, and it is this which is the difference. If the problem does occur at the same time as the loss of MP aircraft, then maybe there is some relationship, though I can't guess what I'm afraid. I think you can turn SB's weather off, so you could try flying without its weather control. If that seems to fix one or both symptoms, you are well on the way to resolving the issue. If this is the case, turn the weather back on and enable FSUIPC's Weather and IPC Write logging (see the FSUIPC Options, Logging page). Zip up the resulting FSUIPC.LOG file (after you get the problem), and I'll see what sort of things it is doing. Also, when you get the symptoms, run WEATHERSET to see what sort of cloud layers and icing levels you are getting. I see. But it doesn't. That's the function of Multiplayer. FSUIPC doesn't know how to do that at all. Try with SB weather switched off first, assuming it is on. If that helps, let me see the log so I can tell what it is doing. If not, and no SB experts here can suggest anything, then all I can think of is that process of elimination I mentioned above. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I cannot reproduce that here at all. There are no other reports, and the only change in the recent release of PFC was to correct the way it saves and reloads User Config quadrant names. Please review the history of changes near the end of the PFC DLL user guide. It is probably nothing specifically to do with PFC -- the loading of an additional module merely changes some of the memory arrangements, and the order of chained calls from FS's main routines. As it is crashing in the Weather DLL it could also be down to a corrupt WX related file. The FSUIPC log shows things going badly wrong long before you change an aircraft or anything like it: 55828 ClearWeather Button Pressed 56875 WeatherOptions set, now 6018B72D (timer=0) 57109 ***ERROR C0000005 at 21132556 ChainedProcFF 57109 *** Access violation trying to read address 00000004 57109 *** EAX 0171FF90 EBX 00000000 ECX 00000000 EDX 0171FF90 EDI 0000000E ESI 0176E804 It seems that as soon as anything is done with the weather, as here, near the start, FS is crashing in WEATHER.DLL (the address 21132556 is in that module). It only happens to be caught and logged by FSUIPC here because FSUIPC is making the call to it. In your final FS crash it isn't caught by FSUIPC, that is the only difference. I cannot really do anything about this in any case now until next week. The log you show certainly looks as if it should be useful, but please temporarily add IPC read/write and "extras" logging, close FS, reaload and run to the crash, then send me the resulting complete log (not a snippet). Best to include the PFC.INI and the FSUIPC.INI also, Zip them and send to petedowson@btconnect.com. I also want confirmation of the VERSION numbers of my modules you are using. Please don't just say "latest" as folks have different ideas to what that means! Please also detail more about what you have loaded and running at the time, and anything non-standard about any of your aircraft. Incidentally, I do take objection to your subject line. :( PFC is definitely not "FUBAR" now, nor was it before! That's a most unfair accusation and not really likely to engender my most enthusiastic reaction. As I say, I will do my best to help, but guests for Christmas are here now, and then we are out at relatives for several days for the Christmas period. Send more details (including version numbers, FSUIPC ini, PFC ini as well please), and I'll try to find out what is going on when I get back. Oh, as well as your current version numbers it would be useful to know what you've changed recently, and what the version numbers were when you were last happy. Since you also seem to think you had a previous version of PFC that was "FUBAR" kindly identify that version too and tell me why you thought it was such, as there's not been reports of any PFC crashes that I recall. Also, in case it is a corrupt weather file, try deleting or moving or renaming your FS9.CFG file, or at least deleting the WX file associated with your default Flight. Save a new one if it loads successfully without any of those error entries in the FSUIPC log. Other files which can cause WEATHER DLL crashes are those in the Weather subfolder in FS, but unless you can find these on your FS2004 installs CDs I assume you'd need to re-install FS to fix them. Regards, Pete

Since you are posting this out of thread I have no idea what you are talking about, or who you are, even. If you want to discuss something or dispute something, please do so in the thread to which is pertains, otherwise I cannot possibly know what you are talking about. And there is no need to be so rude and nasty. I work many many hours on the software and its support and I try hard to please everyone, but I cannot solve all the world's ills. Your impatience and irrationality helps no one at all. You posted this same message here, and privately, just to be doubly irritating I presume? Who do you think that helps? Since there's no thread for me to follow on this, I have no idea what you are talking about. And what information does Squawkbox update FS with? Nothing I know of. The information SB imparts to FS is mainly the multiplayer images and aircraft locations. That is nothing to do with FSUIPC but Multiplayer. I don't know of anything SB sends to FSUIPC -- it's mostly the reverse, the position of your user aircraft. You said, just a bit earlier, that your problem, whatever that is, "only happens when using FSUIPC" -- but then contradict yourself by saying "my problem happens only when I use it with IVA and VATSIM which use Squawkbox". Squawkbox uses multiplayer to talk to FS, not FSUIPC as far as I know, except possibly if you use SB for weather. The SB interface to FS is 95% multiplayer, 5% FSUIPC, at best. What pilot error are you talking about? And I repeat, Squawkbox mainly uses multiplayer to talk to FS, not FSUIPC. It uses FSUIPC to read data from FS for your aircraft location, little else. Please go sort yourself out and come back with the real questions you may have. Going off half-cocked really helps no one. If you have a problem between Squawkbox and FS, there are others here who may be able to help. There's a wealth of such experience about, but not with me, I'm afraid, as I am not a Squawkbox user. Please calm down. Maybe take a nice Christmas holiday, then come back and explain your problems here so other SB users may be able to help. Pete

Please refer to the FSUIPC documentation, which you will find in the FSUIPC.ZIP file you downloaded. This tells you all about this stuff. As Squawkbox is freeware it gets free access to FSUIPC, but as the current version is older than FSUIPC 3 it doesn't have an access key built in. However, if you look further up the list of messages here in the Forum you will finmd a "sticky" one about Freeware Keys. The key for Squawkbox is listed there. You will also see several other 'announcements' which will tell you a lot more about what has happened since you last came across FSUIPC. Regards, Pete

Okay. I'll make a note to do that. Regards, Pete

Use of any of the interface coding is free. The parts that aren't mine were donated for general use. The mechanics of the interface itself originated back in FS95 days, though the current version derives from an FS98 interface. Of course the data and facilities provided through it have come a long way since then. The access through the interface to FS needs an access Key, however. This is generated specifically for each application needing it. the source code (VB or C/C++) doesn't matter. Access keys for freeware are provided free, but those for commercial products or actual commercial (profit-making) use are subject to agreement, on terms which are individually negotiated for each company or group. For more information please see the access registration document inside the FSUIPC SDK. Contact me at petedowson@btconnect.com when you want to go further. Regards, Pete

Since you have a registered copy of FSUIPC you have no need to register any application separately. You have universal access to all. This is why the button disappears. Please re-check the documentation. It is one of the benefits of registering your personal copy of FSUIPC. Regards, Pete

Well I sure hope someone can help you. I have no idea I'm afraid. Very sorry. Perhaps someone will jump in with some ideas. There are plenty of on-line flyers using FS2004 so there must be a solution. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC doesn't know such data. You'd have to get the Latitude and Longitude then analyse the ICAO_POS.bin file to determine that. This file is in the Weather sub-folder. Each entry is 16 bytes conrtaining 4-byte ICAO, the latitude, longitude and altitude all in 32-bit float format. Regards, Pete

Okay, no problem -- the documentation is usually the best place to check first to find out. AVSIM and many other websites do receive all new versions of all my modules, and even at the same time as the Schiratti site, but they seem a bit inconsistent as to whether they put them up or not. Enrico Schiratti is almost always first, and his page is actually the only complete collection of all my FS works, which is why I refer to it most. Masny other websites also just carry links to the same page. Regards, Pete

It depends on (a) what the interface is like, whether I consider it usable in the same way, and (b) how it is to be financed. I understood that the SDK may not be free, in which case if I enable folks to bypass it by simple assignments in FSUIPC the PMDG folks will either be upset with me, or need to collect for FSUIPC usage too. I cannot possible comment further until I've seen the SDK and the details are made public. Regards, Pete

The 9-pin socket has been a standard on PCs for a long time. The "standard" here is a PC standard, not an EIA or IEEE standard. The pin allocations are: 25-pin -- 9-pin -- Use 1 -- -- -- protective ground 2 -- 3 -- tx data 3 -- 2 -- rx data 4 -- 7 -- RTS 5 -- 8 -- CTS 6 -- 6 -- DSR 7 -- 5 -- signal ground 8 -- 1 -- DCD 20 -- 4 -- DTR 22 -- 9 -- Ring 23 -- -- -- DSRD The normal data handshaking uses CTS/RTS not DTR/DSR. The latter usually need simply to be held on to indicate power is applied and the device connected. In many cables they are simply link to each other locally and not device inter-connected. The multiple Read calls don't take any time at all as all they do is build up the request block in the already-allocated shared memory space. The main time taken is by the Process call, in the changeover to the other Windows process and the queing in FS's message queue, then the process change back to you. The little bit FSUIPC does in the midst of all that is very quick in comparison (unless you are asking FS to load or save a flight, or change the time (which reloads textures) and so on). Reading 1 or 100 variables wouldn't produce a noticeable difference in comparison with the variations in process swapping times. Regards, Pete

If you are entering the details in the "register an application" part, then you are "registering the program". So far all the previous folks who had such problems were entering something wrong, like "squakbox" or "squawkbox.exe". The program name as well as the key must be entered correctly, that is all. In this case it is "squawkbox", Second, if this is with FS2004 then I think you need another program (SBRelay?) to convert between FS2002 mulitplayer and FS2004 multiplayer. I hope someone else can jump in here with clarification on this as I don't use SB myself. Hmmm. Someone who uses things things will need to help. Sorry, I've no idea. Isn't there a forum for Squawkbox users somewhere? Regards, Pete